How Power Is Excercised in George Orwelll's 1984 Essay

All of the constant messages and propaganda causes citizens to have no time for independent thought. The constant stream of propaganda is designed to make everything the Party does, look like a glorious success. Everyone thinks the Party is doing well and is a necessity when in reality, the people would be better off without the Party. No matter where the people go, the Party provides a constant barrage of information, mostly untruthful, meant only to occupy their time. The Party also thinks down upon the family structure. The Party undermines families by letting their children into an organization called the Junior Spies. The Party then brainwashes and encourages them to spy on their parents. They are told to report any problems and signs of disloyalty to the Party. Mrs. Parson’s children are in the Junior Spies. Mrs. Parson is even afraid of her kids accusing her of a thoughtcrime or any disloyalty. The Party also forces the public to suppress and disband their sexual desires almost completely. They are forced to treat sex as merely a job where the only purpose is the creation of new, loyal, Party members. With such a lack of sexual freedom, it is obvious why Winston wishes to overthrow the Party and the face of Big Brother. When Winston is being tortured by O’Brien, Winston submits to O’Brien’s power. O’Brien is holding up four fingers and yet Winston says there are five. He is accepting anything

The main character in George Orwell’s 1948 novel, 1984, Winston Smith can be seen as many things. To some, he may be a hero, but to others he is a coward and a fool. Throughout the novel, Winston’s characteristics are explored, and readers are shown the reasoning behind Winston’s twisted mind. It is evident that although Winston thinks he had control over his own mind and body, this is an imagined factor. The world of 1984 is one of a totalitarian society, where no one can be trusted, and no one is safe, Winston being the primary example of one who trusted thoughtlessly.

Winston Smith, George Orwell’s main character from 1984, contributes greatly to the novel in many ways. While he is presented to be a simple man, Winston adds many complex ideas to the classic piece of literature. Orwell uses internal and external characteristics, symbols, and significant quotes to develop Winston’s role in 1984.

In 1984, the ultimate form of betrayal is introduced when The Party causes Winston to betray his own mind and accept their views, and love Big Brother. It the beginning, Winston stresses the importance of keeping your own thoughts, in a world where other opinions and alternate accounts of past events are being forced upon the population. Winston points out that “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.” and thoughts like this become important to the reader, who, as Winston does, believes that they are safe in his head as a facet of his character (Orwell 29). However, the torture in the Ministry of Love gets to Winston, and he begins to lose his individual opinions. O’Brien systematically removes all rebellious thoughts in Winston’s mind, replacing them with the ideology of The Party. In doing so, it is as if they are killing a character. When Winston is released he behaves like a new character altogether, he loses the battle with himself and betrays his original opinions against The Party. In using self-betrayal to show

The Orwellian government controls many aspects of an individual’s life in the belief that this will create a utopia. Unfortunately, this utopia is only beneficial to the inner party. In the book, the ruling party relies heavily on technology to keep control of the population. This government uses a lot of propaganda, which is fed to the people through this technology. A device called a “telescreen” is used as the mouth of the government. It is implemented not only in public places but in peoples’ homes and it cannot be switched off. It constantly broadcasts only information that the government wants seen. This action is described at the beginning of the novel when we are first introduced to the telescreen:

The intoxication of power and thrill of victory is enough motivation for people to continue living without friendship or love. "Oceania was at war with Eeastasia!

The main version of this surveillance is through the telescreen that is stationed in every room constantly watching the people. There is always propaganda across the screen supporting Big Brother and the endeavors of Ingsoc. The telescreen combined with the thought police is the ultimate tool for destroying individual thought, "The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself-anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide" (Orwell). This non-stop flow of information stimulates everyone to join in with the demands of Big Brother even when they do not want to. Even the telescreens and Thought Police are not enough because the people are faced with the omnipresent signs reading "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU," that are constantly scrutinizing them.

The main character in George Orwell’s book 1984 is a thirty-nine year old man with the name of Winston Smith. Winston Smith creates thought crimes, he also has anti-Party views. The story “1984” tells about all of Winston Smith’s struggles. In an effort to avoid being monitored, Winston physically conforms to society, however mentally he does just the opposite. Winston is a thin, frail and intellectual thirty-nine year old. Winston hates totalitarian control and enforced repression that are characteristics of his government. Winston hates being watched by Big Brother. He always has revolutionary dreams, he feels like he would be protected. Julia is Winston’s lover, a beautiful dark- haired girl working in the

This shows how even the most rebellious people in Oceania can fall victim to torture and brainwashing at the hands of this inhumane government. Prolonged torture can influence anyone to do unthinkable acts. Eventually, just the threat of torture is sufficient enough to make Winston desert his once defiant thoughts. It is a truly horrible moment for the citizens when Winston succumbs to the Party’s torture, and is ultimately eliminated by the Party. Taking a little ounce of hope of freedom for Oceania with him. Granted, it brings the story full circle in warning the reader about how far a government is willing to go in order to maintain power over its citizens.

Through history, many civilizations tried to gain absolute control over their society. For example, the Nazis wore their prisoners down to destroy their honor by torturing them endlessly, starving them until they became easy to manipulate, acting as the Nazi’s puppets. However, the Nazi party was not successful in taking total control over all aspects of society. Soon enough, they were taken down, ending their power abruptly. Though History only continued to repeat itself as attempts at totalitarianism failed, Big Brother’s Oceania was able to accomplish the impossible, to successfully maintain absolute power through the use of fear, strong human instincts, and control over the human thought.

After capturing Winston Smith for thought crime, O’Brien describes real power as “tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your choosing” (Orwell 266). By this he explains that true power is being able to choose what people minds think. In George Orwell’s novel, 1984, Winston, a Ministry of Truth worker who hates the Party, slowly starts to disobey the Party rules such as having freedom of thought and individuality. He entrusts a Party member, O’Brien, with his secret for the hatred of the Party. O’Brien reveals that he is a high Party leader who will fix Winston’s corrupt mind. Throughout this novel, it demonstrates that government is controlling people’s minds and

The Oceanian government and the United States government use power to have control over what people say, do and think.

Despite Winston's passionate hatred for the Party and his desire to test the limits of the Party's power, his capacity to carry out action against the Party is burdened (i.e. lacking positive freedom) by his intense paranoia and overriding belief that he will ultimately suffer scrutiny and brutal torture for the crimes he

Physical control is a large part contribution to the success of the totalitarian governments. They focus on taking away the individuality of the person and replace it with undying love for big brother. However all governments have a crack, a glitch that can prove to be an achilles heel. No matter how seemingly perfect they currently are, if there is a crack, there is a way for rebellion to occur. Just as important as it is to have physical control, it is also key to have jurisdiction over the human mind. The people must wholeheartedly believe and love the government. Brainwashing will help to avoid future uprisings or disputes against the state. In 1984, the citizens of Oceania worship Big Brother where as in We, they worship The Benefactor. In both cases, these godlike figures prove to play a crucial role in uniting the countries.

What the progression of Winston’s character, from someone who would vehemently write “down with Big Brother” to a brainwashed party loyalist, illuminates is the futility of resistance in a totalitarian government (18). Winston’s end-state emphasizes the whole purpose of the novel: to warn of the all encompassing power of totalitarian government. Winston is made an example of